camelspyyder

Just what they need. The young yank boss has no connection to, or experience of, F1 (but grandpa owned FIAT (and therefore Ferrari)) and here he is doing interviews in Gazzetta dello Sport (The Italian bible of sporting newspapers). Is he just trying to rein in expectations - it's not what the tifosi want to hear regardless. I notice he blames the chassis for the performance deficit. No reference to the dodgy power unit being reigned in by the FIA and ruining the performance of all 3 Ferrari powered teams. If they don't invest though they'll be further behind when the new rules come in 2022, and they've got to use their financial muscle before the budget restrictions.

Spanish GP must be under threat again now. New lockdown in Catalonia plus new 14 day quarantine for returnees to Britain as of midnight tonight.

Marquez decides against it. Quatararo on pole from Mav, Peco, and Rossi.

The Imola weekend is being shortened to give the teams time to get there from Southern Portugal.

3 more GPs confirmed at Nurburgring, Imola and Portimao. Reports also suggest Canada/USA/Mexico/Brazil all binned.

Mav + Vale 1-2 today. MM back on the bike tomorrow with pinned humerus!

Yes, and Hamilton was 17 points ahead with 2 races to go and only 10 for a win. But no Sir, that was not fixed by the FIA at all (in the aftermath of Ferrari-gate).

Would that be the Vettel who made 2 mistakes under braking today, and was overtaken by young Albon both times???

Dull race. Good work from Stroll. Albon not bad. 2 point swing for fastest lap could prove vital...as Hamilton says, he has previously lost the title by only 1 point (although I remain convinced it was fixed by the FIA so... whatever Lewis)

Awful crash. Could see his upper arm was broken at the end of the replay on TV. It just looked all wrong between elbow and shoulder. No doubt he wont miss a race though.

Toto Wolff interviewed in Autosport says the new car is so fast because, ironically, Ferrari pushed them so hard last year. Toto Wolff says his Mercedes Formula 1 team was pushed to "burnout" levels by Ferrari last year and suggests it's "ironic" it has taken a jump in performance as a result. Wolff was making a pointed reference to the drop in the performance of Ferrari's power unit since last season as a result of a clampdown by the FIA, in the wake of the controversial "settlement" agreed earlier this year. In effect he was implying that in trying to compete with a power unit that many observers suspect wasn't being operating within the regulations Mercedes was pushed to make key development steps that have paid off this year, especially with Ferrari slipping back. Yesterday Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto said that Ferrari had been reined in by technical directives issued by the FIA that impact all teams equally, but Wolff suggested there was more to the story. "Another complete bull**** story, technical directives," he said. "There's a clear regulation on power units. "There have been clarifications in Austin, what is allowed to do or not, which were important, but nothing that was in any way surprising because if you comply to the regulations that was anyway clear. "I think the irony of the story is that we were pushed by some of our competitors to absolutely new levels. "It brought us to almost burnout last year, to develop and innovate in a way to be competitive on track. "And here we go, I think we made a substantial jump in performance from 2019 to 2020. Because we needed to last year, and that is a little bit ironic for me."

FP1 tyres are free I think. They don't come out of the weekends allocation. That said RedBull probably had to use 2 sets just to get out of Q1. And stayed on reds in Q2. Just awful performance by them overall, considering they are the only likely prospect of a season long challenge to Mercedes. How long before Max starts sniffing around for a Mercedes? He may soon feel that RB-Honda is not a championship winning ride and walk away, just as Senna did from Lotus-Renault. I think Bottas needs to sign his new contract ASAP to head Max off at the pass.

Both Williams onto Q2 4 Ferrari engines in the slowest 5 in Q1. Racing point 1-2 ( on fresh tyres that Mercedes didn't use )

Ferrari and bullsh1t. Everything I've read since last year's USGP makes a point of explaining they are slow because their new high downforce car is too draggy. It seems like this explanation has been out there so long and so often even the racing media believe it. So that explains Alfa's plunge to the back of the grid too does it? Nothing to do with say 50 to 100 bhp going missing at all - when the cheating stopped?

The rules allowed it. Only Racing Point took a risk and did it. And it was a risk too, because their car philosophy previously was the high rake design favoured by RedBull. To copy Mercedes they have had to throw that all in the bin, and start from scratch with a Merc style low chassis, that no other team uses these days. Right now, it's bloody quick. What will it do when they learn how to optimise it and set it up?

Renault still whining the about "copying" other F1 cars being wrong. Would they protest if Racing Point were slower? I think not. Do they remember 1979 when everyone who could copied the previous year's Lotus 79? I think not. The racing was terrific in 79-82 even though most teams were running Lotus clones.

Vettel fastest FP2 in wet.

Viewed head on, 6 of the slower F1 cars are now white and difficult to tell apart at racing speed. Nearly all the cameras at Zeltweg were head-on. Anybody else (apart from their sponsors) finding this annoying? I couldn't tell them apart on a smallish TV.

Rumour mill is full on today - Vettel to Aston Martin next year. Buying out Perez long term contract will be damn expensive I think?

Even more like Scalextric than before then! So much for the international city centre series. Makes a change from the usual carparks and industrial district's they race in though. The circuits are usually as near the city centre as the nearest Ryanair airport 😀.

Reports state Bottas deal is done for 2021. Russel/Vettel will be disappointed.

Wont be long if he doesnt buck up

Last year maybe. 2 poles 2 fastest laps and 1 win?

I think Binotto will value last weeks points less than Leclerc single-handedly wiping out the whole team this week. Naughty step for young Charles again.

To be fair, even they would have noticed he was completely innocent this week.